European leaders largely heralded the Alaska summit held between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin over the weekend as a key step toward ending the Ukraine war.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he “welcomed” the president’s efforts to “achieve a just and lasting peace,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the summit represented “important progress,” Italian Prime Minister Giergia Meloni hailed Friday as a “glimmer of hope,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said “the world is a safer place than it was yesterday,” and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico praised Trump for launching “a vital process.”
Following the high-stakes Friday encounter, Trump also held a call with allies to debrief them on his hours-long conversation with Putin, with leading European power players afterward releasing a joint statement saying they “welcomed” the president’s efforts to stop the killing in Ukraine, end Russia’s war of aggression, and achieve just and lasting peace.”
The statement reiterated Europe’s demands that Ukraine must have “ironclad security guarantees to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” and backed Trump’s meeting with Zelensky, which marks the next stage in a potential peace deal and is set to take place in Washington, D.C., on Monday.
In the statement, the leaders of France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Finland, Great Britain, as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa, also backed the idea of a trilateral summit between Trump, Putin, and Zelensky seeking to negotiate and end the war. Moscow is amenable toward the idea, a European official told CNN, while Zelensky pushed for such a meeting with a phone call with Trump following his Friday meeting with Putin. Trump also suggested that a trilateral summit might soon take place on Friday evening in his first interview since his encounter with Putin earlier that day.
“They’re going to set up a meeting now between President Zelensky and President Putin … and myself, I guess,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “Not that I want to be there, but I want to make sure it gets done — and we have a pretty good chance of getting it done.”
Casualties are likely hovering around 1 million in Russia alone as the war hits the 3.5-year mark, with fighting continuing overnight as Moscow launched 85 drones and a ballistic missile at Ukraine, according to the country’s air force, reportedly killing four. Meanwhile, Russia’s air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 29 Ukrainian drones overnight, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
“Based on the political and diplomatic situation around Ukraine, and knowing Russia’s treachery, we anticipate that in the coming days the Russian army may try to increase pressure and strikes against Ukrainian positions in order to create more favorable political circumstances for talks with global actors,” Zelensky said in a statement Saturday.
Negotiations to end the war appear to now be centered on hopes for a comprehensive peace agreement rather than a temporary ceasefire, according to a message Trump posted on Truth Social hours after his meeting with Putin.
While it is unclear whether Trump discussed such hopes in detail during his call debriefing the summit with European partners, part of the conversations involved discussion on providing NATO “Article 5-type” security guarantees for Ukraine, according to CNN. NATO regards any attack launched on one of its 32 members as an attack on all under its Article 5 clause.
Ukraine would not be admitted to NATO under the terms of the proposal, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Saturday. However, “a collective security clause” would allow it “to benefit from the support of all its partners, including the U.S., ready to take action if it is attacked again,” she said, suggesting that Trump told Putin during the summit that if Russia were to break a hypothetical peace deal with Ukraine and renew attacks on Kyiv, the U.S. and Europe might commit to getting militarily involved in the war and coming to Zelensky’s defense.
“The crucial point remains security guarantees to prevent new Russian invasions, and this is the aspect where the most interesting developments were recorded in Anchorage,” Meloni added.
In the past, Trump seemed to cast doubt on whether he would uphold NATO’s Article 5.
“There’s numerous definitions of Article 5,” he said in June on the eve of NATO summit in Europe. “You know that, right? But I’m committed to being their friend.”
Still, Trump later said he was with allies “all the way,” while NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said he had “no doubt” about the U.S.’s commitment to the alliance, telling reporters “there is absolute clarity that the United States is totally committed to NATO, totally committed to Article 5.”
As Europe prepares for the Zelensky-Trump meeting Monday, some have voiced concern that the U.S. is unwilling to stand up to Putin on behalf of Ukraine, expressing dissatisfaction over the results of the president’s encounter with Putin on Friday.
“Alaska: Putin got his red carpet moment with Trump, while Trump got nothing,” Wolfgang Ischinger, former German ambassador to the US, posted on X. “As feared: No ceasefire, no peace. No real progress – a clear 1:0 to Putin – no new sanctions. For the Ukrainians: Nothing. For Europe: deeply disappointing.”
‘NO DEAL UNTIL THERE’S A DEAL’: TRUMP SUMS UP PUTIN MEETING IN SURPRISINGLY BRIEF PRESS CONFERENCE
Trump characterized the summit as a success.
“I think the meeting was a 10,” the president said Friday evening. “In the sense we got along great, and it’s good when two big powers get along, especially when they’re nuclear powers. We’re No. 1 and they’re No. 2 in the world.”